1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a manual control device for controlling a displayed character, object, or the like on the display screen of an amusement machine such as a video game machine.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Joysticks are widely used as manual control devices for controlling displayed characters, objects, etc. on the display screens of video game machines or the like.
One known joystick for use with such a video game machine is illustrated in FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, the joystick comprises a control lever 43 pivotally supported on a frame 42 by a bearing 41, and four detector switches 44 positioned at respective equally angularly spaced locations around a lower end of the control lever 43. When the control lever 43 is manually tilted by the game player, its lower end engages and turns on one or adjacent two of the detector switches 44, so that the joystick generates an output signal, to be supplied to the video game machine, which is indicative of the direction in which the joystick is operated.
Since the function of the conventional joystick is to supply the output signal to the video game machine, the joystick itself does not provide any stimulative action, and the game player concentrates on images displayed on the display screen of the video game machine, often accompanied by sounds produced by the video game machine in timed relation to the displayed images. Only the images and sounds fail to make the game player feel realistic about the video game being played, and the game player often becomes bored due to monotonous aspects of the video game provided by the images and sounds only.
It has been customary for various video game machines to incorporate mechanisms for giving the game player a realistic feeling about video games being played. For example, a driving game machine has a driver's seat for the game player to sit in and a display monitor for displaying cars and driving courses. The driving game machine also has an actuator mechanism for mechanically swinging the driver's seat in timed relation to the movement of the simulated car driven by the game player and displayed on the display monitor while the driving game is in progress. According to another example, a shooting game machine which is played by the game player to engage in shooting combat with a character displayed on a display monitor includes a helmet including a vibrating mechanism, which is worn by the game player. When the game player is shot by the displayed character in the shooting game, the vibrating mechanism is actuated to give vibrations to the game player through the helmet. These game machines thus give the game player a certain physical action through the driver's seat or the helmet to stimulate the game player depending on how the video game develops.
The driving game machine with the actuator mechanism for mechanically swinging the driver's seat is relatively expensive to manufacture because the actuator mechanism is large in size and complex in structure. The shooting game machine with the helmet which incorporates the vibrating mechanism is also relatively complex in structure as it requires a large number of parts.